Devolution happens fast enough that you can see it happen

I argue that the available evidence says that unless a genetic engineer figures out how to stop it, devolution in humans will eventually lead to extinction. I also expect that the same goes for all other life on earth. To any who say that evolution will out-pace devolution, I offer this challenge: demonstrate that evolution consistently happens faster than devolution, and that it consistently reverses devolution often enough to prevent extinction. The odds are stacked against anyone who tries, because mutation is data corruption. In complex systems like life and software, there are generally far more ways to break something than to improve it. Thus mutations will naturally tend to cause far more bad mutations than good ones.

This doesn’t necessarily mean, though, that we’re all about to die from a mutational meltdown. Depending on how many degenerative mutations we have, and how many we can handle, extinction could be tens of thousands of years away.

However, the observed human mutation rate (56-103 per generation, with a large margin of error) is well above one per person per generation, which is far more than evolution can handle. We’re all mutants, so if each of us gets even one bad mutation, natural selection probably won’t eliminate them all.

But wait a minute, how do I know that genetic diseases that run in human families appear faster than good mutations? Does devolution really happen fast enough to see? Are the genetic diseases that run in human families so rare that it took millions of years for the current ones to develop? No. New “de novo” near-neutral, but still-bad mutations appear all the time. Thus devolution definitely happens fast enough that we can see it. They’re visible enough that you may even know someone who has a genetic disease that usually runs in families, but doesn’t have a family history of it. Odds are, though, that you don’t know anyone who has a mutant power that’s clearly on its way to becoming the new normal. Given enough time and chance, we won’t evolve into a race of supermen, we’ll devolve into dead men (and women).

Note that not all genetic diseases count as devolution. If a mutation keeps you from having viable offspring, or if it makes you so unlikely to have them that the mutation dies out within a few generations, then it’s not devolution. This is because it doesn’t build up in the gene pool. It eliminates itself by natural selection. If it doesn’t disappear within a few generations, it’ll spread far enough that odds are that it won’t die out.

Genetic disorders that count as devolution

Cystic Fibrosis
Cause: a damaged gene makes a defective protein, which makes your mucus too thick.
Before modern medical treatments, few if any reached adulthood. But it’s still devolution because the gene for it is recessive. Thus many people are carriers, but don’t have the symptoms themselves. Natural selection doesn’t eliminate it.Main symptoms:

Huntington’s Disease
Cause: a mutation in the HTT gene, which codes for huntingtin. Biologists don’t currently know what it does. They just know that if it breaks, you get a terrible genetic disease.
Causes steady degeneration of the brain, mind, and coordination. Those who have it often describe it as having ALS, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s at the same time.
Symptoms appear starting between ages 30-50, and people survive with it for 10-25 years. Thus, those with this disease are able to have kids before their symptoms become crippling.
Usually, they’re killed by side-effects, like choking or heart failure, rather than the disease itself.Main symptoms:

Sickle Cell Disease
Cause: a mutation in hemoglobin – the protein that carries oxygen and makes blood red
The mutant hemoglobin often deforms red blood cells so they can’t fit into the smallest blood vessels. They then clog these vessels and keep blood from getting to some parts of the body.Main symptoms:

Anemia
Perpetual fatigue, caused by not being able to get enough oxygen

Random-seeming episodes of pain
When tiny blood vessels get plugged up, it often hurts

Swollen hands and feet
When tiny blood vessels in the arms, legs, hands, or feet get plugged up, the blood has nowhere to go.